HOUSING and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland has withdrawn from its legal case against Glasgow City Council.

The charity last year announced major plans to take the local authority to the Court of Session over accusations it is failing to provide temporary homeless accommodation.

This was, Shelter said, despite the council being four years into a five-year improvement plan agreed with the regulator.

Now bosses say the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) last month announced it will intervene and investigate the council's ability to provide temporary housing.

And now the charity will pause legal action until the outcome of the investigation.

Glasgow City Council say they welcome the move from Shelter, however add the legal action "had no impact on the Regulator’s decision".

Some 10,000 people signed a petition calling on Glasgow City Council to do more to support homeless people.

And £17,000 was donated to a crowdfunder appeal to pay for the Court of Session case.

READ MORE: Shelter plans to take city council to court over homeless service

Graeme Brown, Director of Shelter Scotland, said: "Until last month’s 11th-hour intervention, the regulator was not using the full range of its legal powers to fix homelessness services in Glasgow.

"This regulator inquiry is long overdue and would not have happened if it wasn’t for the 10,000 people in the city and beyond who gave us their support.

"It means that the regulator will focus on the failure by Glasgow City Council to meet its statutory obligations.

"This is a huge victory for everyone who has supported us in our campaign to get Glasgow City Council to honour its legal responsibilities.

"Those in power were ignoring this massive injustice. They are not ignoring it anymore.

"Our attention now shifts to the Regulator and we will be sharing our evidence of the council’s ongoing failures from our Glasgow hub."

According to Shelter, the SHR announced its intervention shortly before a permissions hearing was due to be held at the Court of Session on December 9, 2019.

That announcement led to Shelter Scotland saying it would to pause the first phase of court arguments to allow time to consider the scope of the regulator’s plan.

The charity began the legal challenge in August last year after official statistics were published showing the number of occasions  Glasgow City Council had breached its legal duty to provide adequate temporary accommodation was continuing to increase year on year.

READ MORE: Glasgow's temporary housing 'was like being in jail’

Shelter Scotland said money raised from the crowdfunder would go into its Strategic Litigation Fund for any future cases.

Mr Brown added that the situation in the city has not gone away and since August almost 100 more people have come to the charity to ask for support accessing temporary accommodation.

He said: "The inquiry from the Scottish Housing Regulator brings new hope that this grave injustice can be stopped without going to court.

"The regulator still has the option to replace the city council’s management team if they cannot show that they are capable of upholding their legal duty to guarantee safe temporary accommodation to every homeless person who needs it.

"We will be providing all our evidence to the regulator to assist with its inquiry and we will also return to court if necessary.

“We want to thank our supporters and ask them to stick with us until we see an end to the disgraceful practice of gatekeeping in Glasgow.

"As we announce our intention to withdraw from the court process at this stage, the campaign continues."

A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “Shelter’s legal action had no impact on the Regulator’s decision and we welcome their move to abandon their court case.

“We are working constructively with the Regulator in order to improve homelessness services and our door remains open to Shelter to engage positively with us.”